


And I Won't Miss You At All

by dvs



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-30
Updated: 2010-01-30
Packaged: 2017-10-06 20:37:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/57529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dvs/pseuds/dvs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Doctor, life still goes on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And I Won't Miss You At All

**Author's Note:**

> Post **Journey's End**.

Donna hurried through the alley, her bag heavily weighing down her shoulder. There it was again. That noise. That screechy fluttery noise. Donna ran a little faster. She'd have to get a pair of trainers or something. These shoes were rubbish for running. She ran out of the alley, looking around as she exited into a brightly lit street, the moon full and bright over the rooftops of sleeping homes.

Flutter flutter screech. There, again.

Donna turned to run again, down the street and straight into some idiot who had chosen this time of night for a jog. They both fell to the ground. Donna got up quickly, picking her bag up from the ground and turning to ask the idiot what kind of idiot he was. Only, the idiot was rooted to the spot and just staring at her like some kind of idiot.

“What?" she said after a good minute of being stared at.

"What?" he asked, suddenly snapping out of it and looking a little startled as if he hadn't just mowed her down with his whippet-like frame.

"You,” she explained.

"Me?"

"Yes, _you_. Staring at me. _What_?" she asked.

He straightened up, looking around. Actually, trying to look all nonchalant at three in the morning in the middle of an empty street. "Oh nothing. It's just that... bit late for a walk isn't it?" he asked, frowning at her.

"Yeah. So?" Donna asked. "You're out. Unless you're indoors and I'm having really rubbish dream."

More staring and maybe a little offended frowning too. Donna wanted to ask him if there was something wrong with him, only then it clicked. She knew this man. She'd seen him before. That hair was very familiar.

"What?" he asked her when she may have stared for too long at his shoes.

"What?" Donna frowned.

"You. Staring at me. What?" he asked. He was mimicking her. Bloody cheek.

"Actually, I was thinking about where I've seen you before, funny man," Donna snapped. He looked a little less funny. A bit suspicious maybe. "John Smith. You were 'round my house a few months back."

The smile was slow and... not quite there. He nodded. "Yeah. That's me. John Smith. How's the gas leak?"

"We had a gas leak?"

"There was definitely some kind of leak."

"No one told me anything about a gas leak."

"Because I came over to fix it."

Donna frowned at him. Maybe he was telling the truth. He looked shifty enough to be the gas man. She nodded. "I'm--"

"Donna Noble," he said, clearing his throat. "You're Donna Noble."

Donna smiled, maybe going into coy mode a little too easily. Not really sure why, but she did. Well, it was always a plus when someone bothered to remember your name. And especially since someone had called her Donna Noblet once. "Made an impression, did I?"

Smith nodded. "Worst leak I've ever seen."

Donna gave him a look which made him fidget. Then she smiled and said, "Mind if I ask you something?"

Smith looked a little wary, but said, "Okay."

"British Gas supplying you with bows and arrows these days?"

"What?"

"On your back. A bow and arrows."

"What, this?" He pointed at the shoulder that had nothing behind it.

"No, _that_," she pointed to the equipment behind his left shoulder.

"Oh, this thing?" he asked, prodding the bow over his shoulder as if people walked around bows and arrows all the time. "It's nothing really."

"Looks like a bow and arrows."

"Does it?"

“It does a bit.”

He looked like he was cooking up a lie. “Well, it's dark. It's scary. There could be those... hoodies.”

"You're carrying around a bow and arrows in case you run into hoodies? You trying to be funny?"

"Ah! You _said_ I was funny."

"Yeah, and now I'm saying you're a nutter."

Smith was smiling. He seemed far too amused as he said, "You're probably right about that. Totally mad actually. You shouldn't even be talking to me. I'll probably... bite you or something"

"Why? Does it catch?" Donna asked with a smile.

Smith seemed to think it over and shrugged with a smile. "Well, sometimes."

Donna laughed. Smith was grinning. There was something strange about this all. Strange and familiar the way he stood with his hands in his pockets. Why the hell wasn't she shoving a rape alarm in his ear and calling the police? Donna didn't want to think about it. At least, she thought she didn't.

Did she? Because there was definitely something... yes! No. Oh! No. No no. _What?_

"I should--" Smith pointed somewhere past Donna's shoulder.

"Yeah, me too," Donna said. “Should be getting home.”

"Nice seeing you again." Smith was nodding. People usually lied when they said they were glad to see you again, but him, against her will, Donna believed him. Some guy she'd only met twice. Weird.

He stepped forward and Donna held out her hand to shake his, only he seemed to bypass her hand and go straight for a hug. Donna was considering kneeing him in the nuts, only she went still, standing there frowning into the street, her hands just coming up around his skinny frame instead of smacking him in the head for having completely ignored the fact that people have personal space and boundary issues thank you very much. But...

Everything felt so warm and bright. It was like her skin was vibrating ever so slightly. It hurt a little. A twinge at the back of her head. And it stopped just as suddenly as it started when he let go and stepped back with a slight pat on her back.

"Right. Best be off then," he said, like he wasn't some nutter hugging women he didn't know.

Donna blinked and turned to watch him walking away. "Yeah. See you around."

He stopped and made a face at her. "I'm not in these parts much really." Then he frowned and said, "Because... not a lot of people are using gas in this area."

"Maybe we'll bump into each other anyway," Donna said with a frown. He really did seem like a bit of an idiot. "I've got like a sixth sense about these things. I think I'm a bit psychic actually."

Smith looked skeptical for a second and then nodded, offering her a smile. "Well, see you around then, Donna Noble," he said as if he relished saying her name, making it sound oddly foreign, before turning and running off down the street as Donna watched him disappear around a corner.

A part of her said, _go, follow him and see_ and just as quickly the thought vanished. It didn't matter.

Did it? No. No. It didn't.

Flutter flutter screech.

Donna twisted around and looked up into the sky. There it was, a flutter. And a screech. She ran down the street, one hand in her bag, finding the handle of the sharp shooter style stunner. She swung the bag around her shoulder and held the stunner with both hands. The trouble with dubious items bought on eBay was that they didn't always come with instructions. But Donna seemed to have a sixth sense about these things and where it didn't work out, well, she was learning to run faster and faster.

She fired the stunner and the screeching fluttering thing became visible above her. It was much less scary when it was invisible. Big dragon things usually were. Still, brilliant though. After all, _big dragon thing_. Donna whipped out her digital camera and took a picture as the big dragon thing seemed to rear up in flight, its skin all metallic, purple and green, the space around it shimmering. Then it shimmered right out of existence, back into whatever phase or dimension in which it usually existed.

She stared up at the dark, her heart hammering in her chest. "Okay. That was brilliant."

It was totally mad. Scary as hell. But it made more sense than anything else these days. To be out here and to look for the things she would never have looked for if she hadn't slept through Earth moving and planets in the sky.

Because, seriously, what kind of dumbo missed that? Not Donna Noble. Not anymore anyway.

Donna turned the stunner off and shoved it into her bag, finally making her way home. She'd need to rest up if she was going to be ready for her little trip to the latest metal-head sighting.

Metal-heads. God, she thought, how brilliantly mad.

**\- the end -**


End file.
